We have changed the format of the 2010 dues notice so that there is a portion for you to keep as a record of your payment. And the bottom third allows you to update your e-mail or other contact information. The last APS member survey indicated that about 80 percent of the membership has e-mail, but we only have e-mail addresses for about half of you. Without an e-mail address we can not send you our monthly e-mail bulletin or notices of shows in your area. We do not release member’s e-mail addresses.

You also will notice on your dues notice that the second volume of Dick Winter’s Understanding Transatlantic Mail (currently at the printer) should be available to ship to members by December 1. The first volume sold out in less than a year and dealers are currently charging at least 50 percent more than the original member price. We also are pleased to offer several publications by the United States Philatelic Classics Society.

We certainly hope it is not the case, but if you decide not to continue your membership, letting us know will save the cost of further reminders and any reasons given may help us improve.

Thanks
With November comes Thanksgiving and we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Thanks to Doug Drumheller who, working with Education Director Gretchen Moody, has begun conversion of our slide programs to DVDs. We expect to have five programs converted by December 31.

• Thanks to the Hollywood Stamp Club, which has agreed to cover the cost of continuing the APS Stamp Talk radio show through 2010. And thanks to Nancy Clark for continuing to host the show.
• Thanks to Don Sundman and Mystic Stamp Company for sponsoring our monthly downloadable album pages. In early 2010, after the 2009 U.S. album pages all are available, we plan to offer a CD that will include all twenty-plus sets of album pages created to date.
• Thanks to the volunteers who have helped fill the gaps resulting from our reduction in sending staff to shows. Specifically, thanks to Dan Walker for covering Sandical, Joann and Kurt Lenz for the Plymouth Show, Denise Stotts for Balpex, Richard McConnell for the Omaha Show, Ken Grant for Milcopex, Dennis and Ellen Gilson for the New York 400 show, and American Topical Association Executive Director Vera Felts who exemplifies partnership by agreeing to staff a shared APS/ATA booth at Chicagopex.
• Thanks also to our many generous donors. Over the past month we have received especially generous gifts in the memory of several individuals. The widow of Ling Wen Hu has designated the earnings from an endowment at the Centre County Community Foundation to the APS in her late husband’s memory, and the Rasdale family has given $5,000 in memory of Dick Rasdale. We have also received many generous gifts in memory of Bill Welch and Charlie Peterson.

Your generous gifts help us move forward with new initiatives. We are currently investigating options to provide members with online access to The American Philatelist (in addition to continuing to provide them with printed copies) and to begin digitizing some of the materials in the Library. You should see the initial fruits of this work in 2010.

• Thanks are owed to many other people. And don’t forget you also can show thanks for the efforts of your fellow members (and non-members) by nominating one or more individuals for the Society’s Carter Volunteer Recognition Awards. Nominating forms and criteria are available on the APS website and must be completed and returned by December 15.

The happiest of Thanksgivings to you and yours from all of us at the APC.